Hyderabad: NGT calls for formation of joint committee to check Hussainsagar lake pollution

In the final order, seven years after the application was first filed before it, the Green Tribunal maintained that “the pollution of Hussainsagar lake is continuing which is a matter of serious concern.”

The case was filed by lake activist Dr Lubna Sarwath in April 2015 with the state of Telangana, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) as respondents for their failure to prevent and remedy pollution of Hussainsagar lake and consequential pollution of river Musi on account of discharge of industrial effluents and sewage.

Dr Sarwath, responding to the final order, said that she was disappointed with the final judgment though she was yet to go through the order copy. “My lawyers and I will challenge this order of the NGT principal bench. The committee consists of all the violators (respondents) against whom I have petitioned. It is an order without any justice,” she told indianexpress.com.

As per the NGT order, the joint committee is to be headed by the additional chief secretary, urban development, with nominees of national wetland authority, state wetland authority, TSPCB, CPCB and director, environment, Telangana, as members. The state wetland authority will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance. They may meet within one month and after taking stock of the situation, prepare an updated plan which may be executed within the next six months, the order said. The Tribunal also directed the committee to place the minutes of its monthly meeting on the website of the state wetland authority.

“The plan may provide for the treatment of 376.5 minimal liquid discharge (MLD) of sewage entering into Hussainsagar, preventing contamination of five feeder channels, preventing industries disposing of effluents in Kukatpally drain and restoration measures for water quality, if necessary, by adopting in situ remediation processes, with aeration and ozonation, if found to be giving appropriate results, regulating encroachments as per law and other relevant aspects. Recharging of Hussainsagar may be ensured and the treated sewage having low BOD and faecal coliform be considered for maintaining the hydrological equilibrium of lake,” the final order stated.

“After seven years, the larger issues of rampant encroachment, dumping of construction debris from the demolition of the old Secretariat, construction of sluice inside the full tank level (FTL) and the matrix scam have not been addressed, though the previous judgment of the NGT southern bench mentioned it as a grave matter,” Dr Sarwath said, adding many joint committees have been formed in the last seven years, but in vain.